UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years146 Women and growing vulnerability to HIVAnother alarming development was the increasing ‘feminization’ of the epidemic. Since1985, the percentage of women living with HIV had been rising and, by 2002, almost half thenumber of adults living with HIV were women; in sub-Saharan Africa, women were at least 1.4times more likely to be infected with HIV than men 6 .‘The face of HIV/AIDS has become that of a young African woman’, reported the Los AngelesTimes in November 2003 7 .Noerine Kaleeba, who started as UNAIDS’ Community Mobilization Adviser, had beenspeaking about this trend from the inception of the Joint Programme. In 1997, she hadwarned: “If we do not take concrete action on raising the status of women, forget aboutdoing anything about AIDS. … We were not planning specifically for women and [I knew]if we didn’t do that, we would get to a stage where the numbers of women infected wouldovershoot that of men”. Protecting women is crucial to development, she explained, becausein many countries they grow the food, bring up families and care for the sick and dying.‘The face ofHIV/AIDS hasbecome that ofa young Africanwoman’.In many cultures, gender inequality is at the root of women’s increased vulnerability to HIVinfection. Women are less likely to have control over their lives or their sexuality; they oftenmarry at an early age, when they are physiologically more vulnerable to HIV and their (usually)older husbands may already be infected. Wives and girlfriends, even when older, have little,if any, influence over their male partners’ sexual behaviour; abstinence, being faithful andusing condoms may not be an option for them.Education is seen as a key defence against HIV infection. In many low-income countries,girls receive less education than boys; if families lack money to pay school fees, or sickparents need to be cared for, it is the girls who stay at home. A recent, comprehensiveUNAIDS Director ofPolicy, Strategy andResearch, Awa Coll-Seck,participating in the 7thAnnual Conference ofthe Society for Womenand AIDS in Africa,in December 1998,in Dakar, Senegal.UNAIDS/Niang6UNAIDS (2003). AIDS Epidemic Update. Geneva, UNAIDS.7Farley M (2002). ‘Female AIDS cases on the rise’. Los Angeles Times, 27 November.